While I have seen numerous blogs and websites (even purportedly from attorneys) stating that NSF, OD and INF bank charges are okay, they are not.
Contract Laws do not permit anyone to charge fees, fines and penalties for breaching contracts. Clauses in contracts that purport to do so are void, voidable and unenforceable in court.
Somehow the banks have convinced everyone they are apart from and above the law. Perhaps it comes from the $100 parking meter tickets that used to be $5 twenty years ago (these are set by ordinance, so yes, they are legal--you need to vote out your alderman), but I'm not sure where this comes from.
Believe me, if fees, fines and penalties were legal, I'd be charging one on every overdue bill, every day, like the banks do, but the Illinois ARDC would never let me do that.
In any case, what I've decided to do is to sue JP Morgan Chase and see what happens.
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Will be following this closely, after closing all three of my Chase accounts tommorrow morning. $231 is NSF fees for a simple account error on my part is a burglary, and totally unacceptable penalty to heft on a customer during these times. Fuck you Chase. High-tailing it to the nearest credit union.
ReplyDeletechanges to FRB Regulation E will require banks to allow account holders to opt-out of so called "overdraft protection" programs. not sure when it becomes mandatory but several large banks have announced they are revising their policies to allow opt-out, which would do away with any NSF fees for ATM or POS transactions with a debit card. see NYT article here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/your-money/24credit.html